Recycle Ability of Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic (PCR) from the Chlorine Tank

Plastic waste that used in our daily life is a major problem of environmental contaminate because it produces microplastics after degradation resulting in the harmful of living organisms, including humans. Therefore, this research has an idea to solve this problem by recycling the plastic waste. High density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic waste from the chlorine tank in fishing industry is considered. This work was designed to blend it with virgin HDPE plastic pellets. The ratio of blended plastics between virgin HDPE pellets and HDPE plastic waste from the chlorine tank which was defined as post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) was 100:0, 50:50, 40:60, 30:70, 20:80 and 0:100 wt%, respectively. The result shows unchanged thermal properties of plastic blends caused by the same type of polymer, thus the PCR without blending with the virgin HDPE plastic is selected for recycle ability studies. The PCR was rerun in the twin screw extruder in the range of 0 - 80 extruded recycle time to observe the thermal, rheological, mechanical, and physical properties. It was found from our result that 20 recycling time of PCR was appropriate for maximum recycling process due to slightly change rheological characteristics, mechanical properties as well as product’s color. HIGHLIGHTS Thermal properties of post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) after recycling and its blending with virgin HDPE Rheological change of post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) after recycling Mechanical and physical properties of post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) after recycling to meet a customer need GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT